~ Frugal living & travel blog

Monthly Archives: September 2011

Is the final day of our Langkawi trip. Our flight scheduled on 1.30pm, therefore we can only make to one location. We decided to visit Sheraton Hotel for a swim there. Their pool oversee the sea, which provide us a nice view. While swimming in the pool, you can imagine yourself at the sea as well. After swimming for an hour and tanning myself while reading the newspaper for another hour, we reluctantly leave the premise.

Swimming pool @ Sheraton Hotel

We checked out from the hotel and returned the car we rent at the airport with ease. There are still a number of places we didn’t manage to visit during our 4 days 3 nights stay in Langkawi. This proves to be a good excuse to visit this island again in the near future.

Is Day 3 and we started our day with Island Hopping that promises great time at the beach. Our first stop is at the Lake of Pregnant Maiden. Before entering the lake, the boatman showed us the view of this famous island that resembled a pregnant lady from the outside.

Island of Pregnant Maiden

Upon stepping down from the boat, you will encounter many mischievous monkeys. Do beware of your belonging and try not to put your food or any plastic bag in view. We have to walk along the path for 10 minutes, before reaching the lake. At the lake, there are paddleboat for rent. We decided to give it a try as we never experience it before. The rental for the solar powered paddleboat cost RM30 for 30 minutes, while the manual paddleboat cost RM20. Being the frugal us, we decided to go for the cheaper option. The paddling is fun before the muscle ache set in the next day.

Lake of Pregnant Maiden

The boatman then brought us to Singa Besar Island for eagle feeding. He throwed in some chicken skin into the sea and a group of eagle starts circling around our boat. Although we loved the sight of this, we wonder will the authorities take action to control the feeding of the eagles.

Eagle watching @ Singa Besar Island

Finally, we stop at Beras Basah Island, the water level is low and beach is clean for a good swim. Thanks for the great weather. After an hour swimming and tanning, the tour ended.

Swimming @ Beras Basah Island

After cleaning off the salt water, we drove towards Kok Beach. On the journey, we passed by Habour Park, where beautiful yatchs are parked there.

Yachts @ Habour Park

After done dreaming of owning a yatchs, we headed to Oriental Park to ride the Cable Car. The ride cost RM15 after 5pm. Unfortunately, the hanging bridge is close for renovation until next year. What a major letdown. We even asked for a discount since their major attraction was closed, but to no avail. No harm asking though.

This Langkawi Cable Car hold the records of being the Longest Free Span Single Rope Cable Car in the world. We can imagine how scary it can be, especially the journey travelling down. Initially, we planned to wait for the sunset view, however, due to thick cloud that surround us, we gave up and headed down before the sunset.

Langkawi Cable Car

We then passed by Berjaya Resort and went to scout the area. There a hotel rooms as well as villas. We strolled at their private beach and cursed myself for not bringing my swim wear along.

Early morning at 9am, we waited for the Mangrove tour agency to pick us up from the hotel. We were drove to the KILIM Geoforest Park and meet up with our tour guide Mr. Hisham and the rest of the tourist that joined our group. Our group consisted of tourists from Syria, Bangladesh, Mauritius and also Malaysia. That’s the perk of enrolling in shared tour, whereby we had the opportunities to meet with people from all around the world.

Our mangrove tour group

Our first stop is the Bat Cave and Mr. Hisham took his time to explained to us about the mangrove species and the exotic trees around. The cave that opens to visitor is pretty small, but we still manage to get a peek at the fruit bats taking a nap while hanging on one feet.

Mr. Hisham sharing his stories of this mangrove tree named Blind-your-eye.

We then cruised along the swamp and on the way we saw a number of yatchs were parked there. We head to Pak Su Fish Farm and were introduced to Pak Su, the owner of the fish farm. He is a very charming old man. He showed us the fishes he kept and keep persuading the shy tourists to pet his beloved stingray. The Archer fishes demostration really made my day. I have not seen fishes that can spite out water so accurately as if they are professional in archery. I should have take a video of it, but we were to engrossed in the action and forgotten about it.

Pak Su Fish FarmPak Su introducing the Horse Shoe Crab

Our great day was spoilt by sudden heavy rain. Mr. Hisham reluctantly had to cancel one of the program, which is swimming by the beach. We had our lunch at one of the floating restaurant by the swamp. Nothing fancy, just chicken rice and orange juice. We ended the tour with eagle watching without the feeding as Mr. Hisham is an eco-friendly tour guide, who believes eagle feeding brings more harm than good. Tour guides often feed them with commercial chicken skin that can be detrimental to the eagles health.

After freshen up back at the hotel, we headed to our next destination, The Underwater World at Cenang Beach. The place is well-maintained despite being more than 15 years old. The entrance fee cost RM28 for Malaysian. As I mentioned earlier, we brought the ticket for RM25 from a tour agency at Jetty Point the day before. Getting good pictures in the indoor environment with low lighting proves to be a challenge, especially when you are not allowed to use any flash.

There are many souvenir shops right before you get to exit the place. We tried to refrain from buying any non-essential item, but finally gave in when we spotted three cute little ice globes with bears.

After that, we drove the Tanjung Rhu Beach and visited the Tanjung Rhu Resort. During our journey back, we manage to caught the magnificient sunset. Lastly, the day ended with a visit to the Night Market at Padang Matsirat.

Many thanks for AirAsia, last year we managed to purchase two zero fare tickets to Langkawi Island. We departed at LCCT on 3rd September 2011 at 1.20pm. We had booked One Helang Hotel through Agoda.com for RM139 per night with free breakfast.

Once we arrived at the Langkawi Airport arrival hall, there were masses of car rental and tour agency awaits you. We asked around a few booth and managed to rent a relatively new Viva Elite for RM60 per day through Indra Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd.

Car rental @ RM60/day

After we checked-in and placed our luggage, we headed to Cenang Beach to scout for tour package. The entire stretch of shoplots at Cenang Beach are full of tour agency and we surveyed almost half of it. We finally chosed Best Star Holiday Sdn Bhd. They offered us RM30/pax for Island Hopping and RM90/pax for Mangrove Tour at KILIM Geoforest Park. Once the payment is settled, we take a stroll down the Cenang Beach. This is by far the most happening beach in Langkawi where you can find all the watersport available. Bars and restaurant is also within easy reach.

Babylon @ Cenang Beach

During the evening, we drove to Kuah Town and visited the Eagle Square. Unfortunately the giant Eagle was under repainting, thus we are not able to take a nice picture of it. Jetty Point is just round the corner and we popped in to have a look. There are some souvenir shops and Starbucks, Kenny Rogers, 7-11 and KFC there. We had KFC as our dinner and then found this agency named Shah Kawi Holidays Sdn Bhd that sold cheaper entrance tickets for Underwater World. It will cost Malaysian RM28 if you purchase on the site, however this agency is selling at RM25. We had tried it, and is legit.